A gutter system and a method of assembling a gutter system.

The prior art:

The present invention relates to a gutter system comprising a number of gutter sections and gutter fittings, and where a gutter section comprises a gutter trough extending along a longitudinal axis with at least one open end with a convex outer surface and where a gutter fitting have a concave inner surface and is adapted for receiving and fixing the open end of two gutter sections so that the convex outer surface of each gutter section rest against the concave inner surface of the gutter fitting.

Gutter systems are well known in many different embodiments providing the user to assemble a gutter adapted for any type of building and for this purpose such gutter systems typically comprises a number of long slender gutter sections forming the dewatering troughs of the finished, and a number of gutter fittings forming e.g. gutter end caps, gutter corners, gutter brackets, gutter unions or gutter outlets.

GB patent application number 2394728 discloses a gutter system as mentioned in the introduction adapted for easy assembly of gutter sections to a gutter fitting.

The object of the invention:

On this background, it is the purpose of the present invention to provide a gutter system being easy to assemble and providing a tight and secure assembly using relatively few separate components. This is obtained by the invention according to claim 1 specifying that the gutter fitting comprises one or more indentations arranged in the concave inner surface and the gutter section comprises one or more projections arranged on the convex outer surface of the gutter trough, and where the one or more indentations and the one or more projections are adapted so that the one or more projections can be inserted into the one or more indentations with a snap fit.

In a preferred embodiment the at least one indentation forms a groove adapted so that the one or more projections engages with the groove with a snap fit.

Furthermore at least one of the projections is formed as a ridge.

The groove may preferably extend substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.

In a preferred embodiment the groove may comprise an end stop arranged at both of its ends and the length of one groove corresponds to the length of the ridge so that each of the opposite ends of the ridge abuts one end stop of the groove such that the ridge can only be released from and/or inserted into the grove by elastic deformation of the gutter fitting and/or the gutter trough.

The gutter fitting may advantageously comprise two grooves arranged mutually parallel with a distance between them.

In a preferred embodiment, the gutter section is open and comprises projections arranged at both ends.

The gutter fitting may comprise a bracket part adapted for attaching the gutter fitting to a supporting structure. In a preferred embodiment, the gutter section is made from a thermoplastic material.

In this relation, the projections may be formed integrally with the gutter section, e.g. by molding.

The invention also relates to a method of assembling a gutter using a gutter fitting and two gutter sections according to any of the preceding claims, wherein each projection on each gutter section is first arranged in front of an indentation on the gutter fitting, and thereafter pressing the projection into a snap engagement in the indentation.

In this relation, the gutter section may preferably be provided from cutting a section of a longer gutter profile made from a thermoplastic material and thereafter inserting an end of the section into a mold adapted for melting and reshaping the plastic material at the end of the section to form the one or more projections.

The drawing:

In the following, one or more embodiments of the invention will be described in more detail and with reference to the drawing, where:

Fig. 1 : Is a perspective drawing showing a gutter assembled using components according to the present invention.

Fig. 2: Is a perspective drawing showing one embodiment of a gutter section according to the invention and as shown in figure 1. Fig. 3: Is a perspective drawing showing one embodiment of a gutter fitiing according to the invention, and as shown in figure 1 .

Fig. 4 and 5: Are cross section drawings showing the process of assembling a gutter section with a gutter fitting as shown in figure 1 , 2 and 3 before and after assembly.

Fig. 6 is a perspective drawing showing a second embodiment of the gutter fitting according to the invention.

Description of exemplary embodiments:

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of a gutter assembly according to the invention using two gutter sections 1 as shown in figure 2 and one gutter fitting 6 formed as a gutter union as shown in figure 3. For illustrative purpose this embodiment thereby only shows a part of a complete gutter assembly e.g. adapted for a specific building and it will be apparent for the skilled person that a complete gutter assembly may be assembled using multiple gutter sections 1 and gutter unions 6. Furthermore, it will be apparent that the gutter sections may vary in length and design, such as the gutter segments shown in figure 4 and 5, without thereby departing form the teaching of the present invention.

The gutter segments may also comprise gutter segments forming gutter corners or gutter outlets.

As shown in figure 3 the gutter fitting 6 have a concave inner surface 7 adapted for receiving and fixing an outer convex surface 5 near the open end ure 1 extend in each other’s prolongation along a common longitudinal axis 3 and thereby the two gutter sections together forms a single gutter trough 2.

In order to hold the two gutter sections 1 in place in the gutter fitting the gutter fitting have two parallel grooves 8 each having and end stop 11 and an opening 9 at one end, and the gutter sections 1 have projections 10 formed as ridges or flanges with a cross section corresponding to the cross section of th grooves 8, so that each of the gutter sections 1 can be mounted on the gutter fitting 6 by first arranging one of the projections 10 in front of a groove 8 on the gutter fitting 6, and then pressing the projection 10 of the gutter section 1 into a groove 8 until the projection 10 it is locked into an interlocking engagement with the groove 8 with a snap.

I this relation figure 4 and 5 shows process of assembling the gutter section with a gutter fitting as shown in the previous figures with a snap engagement. Figure 4 shows a cross section of the gutter section with the projection 10 formed as a ridge or flange before it is pressed into the groove 11 of the gutter fitting by providing a force as shown with the arrow A. Thereby the opposite sides of the gutter fitting 6 with the end stops 11 are flexing away from each other as shown with the arrows B and/or the opposite side edges of the gutter section 1 are flexing against each other as shown with the arrows C.

When the projection 10 formed as a ridge or flange is completely entered into the groove 11 as shown in figure 5, then the end stops 11 snaps back into the original position and the projection is locked between the end stops 11.

In the embodiments shown in the drawings the gutter fitting have a single continuous groove 8 adapted for assembling each gutter section, and the projection 10 is shaped as a continuous flange or ridge, but it will be apparent to the skilled person that the snap functionality may be obtained in various other ways using two or more projections 10 and grooves 8 as long as they provide the function of allowing the projections 10 to be snapped into the grooves 8.

In this embodiment the grooves 8 on the gutter fitting 6 is provided end stops 11 near the opposite sides of the groove 8.

Figure 4 shows an another embodiment of a gutter segment 1 where the gutter segment 1 is a tube provided with holes on one side

Figure 6 shows an alternative embodiment of a gutter fitting 6 where the gutter fitting further comprises a bracket part 13 with screw holes 14 so that the gutter fitting form a gutter bracket adapted for being mounted onto a supporting structure (not shown9. Apart from that the gutter bracket in figure 6 can be comprises grooves 8 arranged in the same manner as the grooves 8 on the gutter fitting shown in figure 3, and thereby the gutter bracket shown in figure 6 can be assembled with any of the gutter sections shown in figure 2, 4